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Line 39: − + − + − − The effects his mother's suicide and the reproach connected to it had on Constant may merely be surmised. One cannot reject though the notion that both didn't help stabilize his connections with other people. The only friend he would ever have throughout his life, Flora Tristan, died too early. Both his marriage, and the relationship with the mother to his son ended in discord. He is a lonely chap, one can't help thinking. Lots of people cross his paths, but not from one of these encounters a stable, level relationship manages to emerge. It appears he deliberately kept himself distant, in the superior position of the teacher, the other-worldliness of a medium, the posture of knowingness about the unreachable, the occult. This may have been calculated as belonging to the chosen role. But it seems that only one of his relationships turned out stable and long lasting: the one with Baronet Spedalieri, with its twofold distance of geography and that between teacher and student. − − These two aspects fall into place to form a picture: There is, rooted deeply into him during his childhood, the desire for social advancement, for recognition and importance, and there is that ultimate gesture of boundless condemnation for his betrayal of this goal, his mother's suicide. Her accusation derails him for a long time, he will suffer visibly, all his activities during the following years becoming a trifle too noisy, too conspicuous, too much begging for effect - as if of someone being plagued by a bad consciousness that nobody ever must notice. Only the next mighty blow to come, the death of his daughter in 1854, puts a limit to this compulsion - albeit for a high price: Under the impression of this latest loss he accepts his mother's old reproach. Loneliness becomes the chosen punishment for his guilt, and in the drive to overcome both guilt and punishment arises the momentum for the rest of his life. From now on he will write in order to free himself. He will not realize that relief lies exclusively in himself, because it was he who accepted that guilt in the first place. And the more he is going to write, the deeper this one and only realistic chance of exoneration will sink back into the occult, and the deeper he will dig into the arcane - without ever hitting what he is actually looking for. −
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Although still continuing with his work (in December 1871 he completed the ''Grimoire franco-latomorum'' on rites of the French freemasons), his physical condition deteriorated increasingly. In 1873, ''L'Évangile de la science'' was written, followed by his last work ''Catéchisme de la paix'' in January 1875. On May 31, 1875 Éliphas Lévi died at the age of 65.
Although still continuing with his work (in December 1871 he completed the ''Grimoire franco-latomorum'' on rites of the French freemasons), his physical condition deteriorated increasingly. In 1873, ''L'Évangile de la science'' was written, followed by his last work ''Catéchisme de la paix'' in January 1875. On May 31, 1875 Éliphas Lévi died at the age of 65.
=== Review ===
=== Reception ===
[[image:Eliphas_Levi_1872_Photo_Originale.jpg|Portrait from 1872|left|thumb]] How crooked, bumby, and tangled the way of Lévi's life may appear, yet it always followed one goal: social advancement, and the recognition in society that would hopefully come with it. Young Alphonse was a promising boy, that his way in school proved clearly right. In France during the age of restauration the direction towards a clerical vocation promised with certainty a future where he would be able to leave the petit-bourgeois milieu of his ancestors, and to live a life secured financially as well socially. For how large his parents' hopes had been his mother's suicide is an eloquent mark. That at least they were not unjustified one may read from the Parisian archbishop's commitment on Alphonse's behalf.
[[image:Eliphas_Levi_1872_Photo_Originale.jpg|Portrait from 1872|left|thumb]]
== Reception ==
== Reception ==